The present invention relates to a centrifugal separator for centrifugal separation and sedimentation of liquid and to an automatic centrifugal separator for automatic separating work.
Explanation follows of a conventional centrifugal separator with reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8.
FIG. 7 illustrate a side-view cross section of the conventional centrifugal separator, and FIG. 8 is a plan view of a major part thereof. In FIG. 7, the conventional centrifugal separator has a main body which is partitioned into upper and lower chambers as a processing chamber 1b and a driving chamber 1c respectively by a floor 1a provided on the middle stage, comprising; a cover 2 for sealing the aforementioned processing chamber 1b having a locking device 2a and being pivoted for free opening and closing through a hinge at an upper opening of the processing chamber 1b, a spindle shaft 4 supported rotatively by use of a plurality of ball bearings on a housing 3 fixed on nearly the middle of the aforementioned floor 1a, an electric motor 5 fixed on the main body which drives the aforementioned spindle 4 through a belt transmission device and the like at the lower end, four pieces of baskets suspended by lug shafts 7a respectively made freely rotatable at the end of a cross rotary arm 6 which is fixed on the upper part of the aforementioned spindle shaft 4 as shown in FIG. 8, and a jig 9 which accommodates cylindrical liquid containers 8 attached to the respective baskets 7.
Explanation follows of a method for use of the centrifugal separator thus structured.
First of all, after mounting on respective jigs 9 liquid containers 8 filled with liquid for carrying out centrifugal separation or centrifugal sedimentation by first unlocking a locking device 2a and then opening a cover 2, locking is made with the cover 2 closed. Then, upon operating an electric motor 5 with a button operation made, a rotary arm 6 fixed on a spindle shaft 4 rotates, and a basket 7 supported at the lug shaft 7a is rotated outward by a centrifugal force and is rotated by keeping the liquid container 8 in a horizontal position. After operating it for a certain period of time, operation is stopped with a button operation. After a complete stop, the liquid containers 8 are taken out by opening the cover 2 after releasing the locking device 2a.
It is common that the separation process is carried out after arranging a plurality of centrifugal separators. However, in the structure thus mentioned above, the stop position of the rotary arm 6 is not constant and a direction of jig 9 being suspended can not be ascertained, and furthermore, there was a problem that automation was difficult due to complexity of an opening and closing operation of the cover 2. Furthermore, a separation process in which a plurality of centrifugal separators are arranged had variations in time for changing the liquid container 8 for each centrifugal serrating process, which made it difficult to keep the time of centrifugal separation process constant.